Hi, I'm Oda — an artist working with hand-gathered earth pigments: ochres, clays, and river stones gathered from Dartmoor, the coast, and the land around my home in South Devon.

Art has been with me since childhood. I grew up drawing and painting. It always felt like ease. Like spaciousness. Like coming home to myself.

After my degree in illustration, I moved into the publishing industry, working to fast deadlines and often in other artists' styles. It was a period that taught me a great deal, but somewhere along the road of education and briefs, the creative freedom I'd always known as a child quietly slipped away. Eventually, I stepped back from illustration altogether and trained as a holistic health coach instead — searching for a different way to be of service.

But art kept calling. After becoming a mother, I found my way back to art— this time as a personal practice of healing. It became a way to process old pain, settle into my new identity as a mother, and find peace through enormous life transitions. Art became a way to discover my own truth and authentic voice. To connect to my Spirit Teachers, and integrate the wisdom I received from them.

Today, my practice is rooted in presence, process and prayer, and is inseparable from my animistic worldview and spiritual practice. I forage for pigment on the land around me, gathering earth and river stones. I notice the animal and plant beings that arrive on walks or in my garden, and include them in my art if they allow it. Each piece begins with intention, synchronicity and play — in collaboration with Nature.

I paint the human form alongside the elemental: earth, water, and the textures of the natural world, exploring what it feels like to be held by life, to soften, to return to safety in the body. This way of working is slow, and it's meant to be. It's less about arriving somewhere and more about staying present with what's actually here — trusting what emerges rather than forcing an outcome.

I'm currently based in Devon with my two children, working from a home studio overlooking a wild garden and a chattering river, surrounded by the materials I gather.

Original works and commissions are available — I'd love to hear from you.